The premium and discount on refined and scrap copper rods narrows, and recycled copper rods face a cooling trend

Since the scrap refined copper rod price spread dipped to a low of 180 yuan/ton on March 5, 2026, it has continued to fluctuate within the range of 400-700 yuan/ton, narrowing gradually.
This phenomenon is mainly due to the slow resumption of work in the recycled copper rod industry after the Spring Festival.
According to SMM data, its weekly operating rate is only 12.03%, down 18.85% compared to the same period last year.
The insufficient supply directly pushed up the price of recycled copper rods.
At the same time, due to uncertainties in fiscal and tax policies, companies that have resumed work are only purchasing tax-included recycled copper raw materials to ensure profits, which further increases production costs.
Therefore, in the past two weeks, the prices of recycled copper rods have shown a premium of 100-300 yuan/ton over the current month’s futures market.
Given that the refined scrap-to-raw material price spread remains below the advantageous line of 1,300 yuan/ton, the economic benefit of recycled copper rods is completely lost.
End users have to switch to purchasing electrolytic copper rods to ensure continuous production, which indirectly promotes the consumption of electrolytic copper.
(SMM)